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No one says anything as they hand over their phones. I take them and put them in the laundry room with the door closed before I return to Jack’s room.

“What now?” Nico runs his hand through his hair.

I lean against the wall. “I confronted my dad about Sean.”

Harper sits up and Luke goes to sit next to her on the bed.

“He said there’s nothing to find. He didn’t admit to anything.” I clench my fists. “He says we need to back off. That if we don’t, William will hurt Harper. He’ll get William to back off with the surveillance because there’s nothing to find.”

“Call our friend,” Harper says softly to Jack.

Jack nods and gets out Sean’s old laptop. We wait while he sets things up.

I move to stand behind him as he pulls up the audio connection. Jack types on the prompt to ask to speak with our friend. Then we wait.

It takes a few minutes before we hear, “Hello.”

“Same crew as before here,” Jack says.

“How are you all doing?” There’s concern in the friend’s voice.

“We’re coping.” Jack runs a hand through his hair. “We thought we found something about Sean’s disappearance, but it only gave us more questions than answers and nothing concrete.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.”

“My father was there. Bruce Ross.” I cross my arms as I stare at the blank screen. “I confronted him, and he said there was nothing to find and we should give it up.”

Our friend sighs. “Without a body, it’s a difficult case. No one even reported him missing. No witnesses and no evidence makes it almost impossible.”

“Were you able to find anything on the computer hard drive that could help us?” Jack asks.

“Sean was the best when it came to computers. His encryption is layered, and most of it is his own design. He might have left a key for Harper or Jennifer somewhere, but without the key, we’re just throwing everything at it to see what sticks.”

“So we’re getting nowhere?” I ask, frustrated. “My dad said he’d ask William to back off of us, but we had to let it go.”

“Honestly?” Our friend scoffs softly. “If Sean knew what you all had been through, he would tell you the same thing. What he wanted was Jennifer and Harper to be safe, and for them to be safe, you five need to be safe. If we don’t push, William might back off. I can make a script Luke can find to give to his father that proves what William received from me was an auto sequence triggered by one of his failed attempts to get into Sean’s cloud drive.”

“My dad had a cloud drive?” Harper straightens.

“He did at one point. I’ve secured everything that was in it, but it still exists and looks like it has files so William has something to poke at every now and then.” Our friend laughs. “It’s good to keep him entertained.”

Harper deflates and leans against Luke. She was so hopeful of finding something, anything about her father. But everything we’ve found leads to a night in a quarry only three people know about. I want to find her answers but not at the risk of losing her.

“Thank you. Keep us posted if you figure out the encryption,” Jack says.

“Take care of each other. I’m glad you made it through. Be teenagers for a while, would you? Before you know it, you’ll be old and wish you could spend the day around the pool with no cares.” Our friend signs off.

I turn to face Harper. “If you want us to stop digging, we will. But if you want us to continue, we might be able to find something.”

Harper presses her hand over Luke’s heart. “We were doing this to make sure William couldn’t hold anything over Luke. Do I want to know what happened to my dad?”

She stops and meets my eyes. I run a hand through my hair. I’m not sure there’s anything we can do to get the answers out of my dad or William. But if she wants to keep trying, I’ll never stop.

“I don’t want to focus on the past anymore.” Harper takes Nico’s hand and looks each of us in the eyes. “I don’t have my memories from Homecoming, and I don’t know for sure what happened to my dad, but I think it’s safe to assume he’s not coming back. So, maybe we should do what our friend told us to do and just enjoy the rest of our senior year. With each other.”

CHAPTER 55

Enemy Spotted